


There's A Catch

by BlueWeirdness



Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: Abuse, Depression, Electrical torture, Emotional Abuse, Emotional Manipulation, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, Manipulation, No shipping, Obsessive Behavior, Possessive Behavior, Torture, also there's normal friendship why do i always forget that?, just twisted friendship, mentions of experimentation, not intended to reflect real people in any way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25542919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueWeirdness/pseuds/BlueWeirdness
Summary: (Based on Fool by oxXPinkLacesXxo)With nothing left for him in a world ruled by Red Leader, Edd saw no other choice but to give in. Tord had promised him a chance for a better life with everything he'd ever wanted, but is it ever that simple?
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	There's A Catch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HappyMadFace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyMadFace/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Fool](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20195065) by [HappyMadFace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyMadFace/pseuds/HappyMadFace). 



> So this one-shot is heavily-inspired by and based on Fool by oxXPinkLacesXxo, so thanks again for letting me do this if you're reading this :D. I was so intrigued by the portrayals of the characters in that story that I just couldn't help myself. This is supposed to take place after their story as a AU/possible epilogue, but I'm not them, and I took a lot of liberties expanding on my idea, so I probably got some stuff wrong in my interpretation of their work.
> 
> Also, I'm gonna repeat some Trigger Warnings: very mild Suicide references, Torture, Electrocution, Depression, Emotional Abuse, Emotional Manipulation, Tord's general villainy, and a lot of Possessiveness and Obsessive Behavior.
> 
> Please feel free to let me know if there's any warning I need to add.

“You know, Edd, I’m actually glad that it took you so long to join me. After all, with the rebellion quashed, there’s no one to stand up to us. So instead of petty fighting, we can focus on ruling instead.”

Still no response.

“By the way, you never told me what you thought about your new quarters.”

If possible, he seemed to be even more dazed somehow.

“So? What do you think about them?”

“They’re… fine, I suppose.”

Edd’s quarters, which actually resembled more of a penthouse apartment than something you’d expect from a military base, came complete with a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, study, and a living area. The last of these was where the two stood now, next to two large windows with a view of the city that Tord was still in the process of rebuilding. Tord had found Edd gazing out of one of them nearly every time he’d come to visit him, which had been often over the past few days. Tord hoped that he wouldn’t continue to let the apartment go to waste.

It was spacious and private enough to give Edd time to think and adjust, though that wouldn’t come until a bit later. First, Tord had to stay and observe as much as he could so as to be certain that Edd wasn’t going to backtrack and do anything he’d regret. Not that Tord was all that worried about it. He was certain from the moment Edd had come to him that the man was finished with his ridiculous resistance.

He’d taken Edd out of his quarters quite a bit these past three days to both keep an eye on him and perhaps give him a much-needed distraction, but unfortunately, it hasn’t seem to have done the job. He figured it was practical to let most soldiers in the base see them together as much as possible as well. Edd had been given his own uniform, complete with a badge representing his higher rank of second-in-command. It was important that Tord's men knew not to shoot at him, considering he’d been the most wanted man in the country for some time. The soldiers they’d seen had cast some strange looks at Edd when they’d thought Red Leader wouldn’t notice, probably under the assumption that he was playing the ex-criminal, especially since the Leader went out of his way to treat him well at all times.

And he supposed that he was faking it some, though not for the reasons his soldiers would expect. He didn’t need Edd to like it here. Didn’t need to trick him. Edd wasn’t an important enemy, no one was anymore. No one had any leverage against Red Leader and if they did, he certainly wouldn’t have taken this long to take care of the situation.

Of course, the emotional… complications made him wish it was that simple.

No, he didn’t need Edd to be happy any more than he needed the worthless citizens below to be happy. But he wanted Edd to be happy now. His old best friend had come so far. Tord’s plans had finally outlasted the man’s stubborn nature. Edd had taken the first real step to realizing his true crimes. Next, Tord just had to make Edd realize what Tord could give him. What he’d been missing when he’d picked Tom and Matt over him. What they could accomplish together. 

So he would have patience for his friend’s daze. Tord understood. Breaking him down had been part of the plan, after all. He’d push away his frustration. Would keep smiling and showing the man what he’d gained and what he’d regained. Though, if he was truly honest with himself, it wasn’t easy for him to see Edd like this, either.

Then there was the part of him that didn’t have to fake anything. The part that whispered excitedly that a broken Edd was better than no Edd at all. It was an aspect of himself manifested from ages of bitterness and loneliness. A part that was born long before Red Leader was fully formed. Edd would surely be alright in time and it wasn’t like he didn’t deserve a little pain. After all, it was nothing compared to what he’d put Tord through.

Either way, Red Leader’s only big plans for now were trying to snap his oldest friend out of his current mental state and if he failed for now, so be it. He’d just have to enjoy their time for the both of them.

“Tord…” Edd finally looked at him slowly, pained.

“Hmm?”

“You said I can have anything, right?”

“Yes! Anything!" Tord gave a genuine smile. Perhaps his friend was getting over it already. "Absolutely anything you want! Like I said before. Good to hear that you’re finally coming around. It’s just not the same to see you down in the dumps.”

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

“No limits?”

“None.”

“No takebacks?”

“Nonewhatsoever.” Tord gritted out the answer this time. Gathering himself, he dropped his usual perky demeanor in favor of sincerity and even sympathy, “Edd, I assure you, I meant what I said. Now that we’ve ended this petty feud, you can stop moping and I can give you whatever you want. And if you don’t believe me…” he chuckled, “Then well, just try me.” 

Edd finally looked him in the eye with resolve and just the one glimmer of hope.

“I want to see Matt and Tom.”

It took everything in Tord not to drop his composure. So soon? It would be unreasonable to assume that Edd would forget about them forever, but Tord was hoping that bridge would stay burned for a while longer.

At least long enough for him to figure out a way to burn the remains.

“Hmmm. I don’t know. Even with your surrender, they’ve been busier than ever lately. Are you sure there isn’t anything else you can think of?”

“Busy doing… what?” Edd asked.

“Why, ruling, of course! They don’t have the same ranking I offered you, but I did give them each a sizable amount of power. In fact, I sort of asked them to cover for us. Just for a little while. Not to mention, in this particular case, it would have to be mutual. I mean, they would have to want you to see them too.” Edd looked down and winced. There it was. The match he could use this time.

“Do they… hate me?”

“What? No! At least I don’t think so.” Tord let his gaze wander out the window, doing a good job of keeping the threatening smirk off his features. “To be honest, though, they didn’t like to talk about you much. I had to order them to bring you to me, of course--safe and sound--but they didn’t seem to have much to say.”

Edd froze, still looking down. Tord smiled knowing he’d struck a nerve. It probably hadn’t even occurred to his green-loving friend that they weren’t aiming to harm him at all. Edd on the other hand? Well, survival instincts made people do some crazy things, Tord knew that from experience.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he soothed, “Whatever you three did on the battlefield is all past now, right? You know better now and everybody’s exactly where they belon—“

“You have to let me see them.” It was getting worse. There was determination in his eyes this time. Tord just stopped his hand from making a fist as Edd continued, “Maybe they do hate me. That’s… fine. I can’t blame them, but I want them to know that I don’t hate them anymore. I-I don’t have the right to. Please. It’s the only thing I want right now.” Tord looked out the window in real consideration this time.

Despite knowing what he’d offered Edd, Tord knew that this was the one thing he couldn’t leave unchecked. He knew Edd better than anyone and he knew that deep down, Edd was the kind type, the warm type. The forgiving type. If he let Edd near Tom and Matt, they would talk things out in time. They might even see what they’d done to him and regret their betrayal. Then they would bring back his old self, but not the one from his and Tord’s oldest days together when it was just them. It would be the troublesome version of Edd that thought he needed more than one friend.

They would put back together what was Tord’s to break and fix.

Unacceptable.

“Alright, old friend. You got it. I’ll pull Tom and Matt away from their schedules for a little fun. Sound good?”

For the first time in long, so very long, Edd looked at Tord with something almost, sort-of close to happiness.

It almost made Tord regret what he was going to do.

…

It had been a few days since Edd had turned himself in, and since then he’d been following Tord around in a daze, letting Tord talk. It wasn’t much different now, really. Even now, as they walked down one of the base’s many corridors, Edd was having a hard time not letting his mind wander while Tord prattled on.

“You never cease to amaze me, Edd. I’m more than a little surprised you want to see them so soon. After they left you so suddenly…”

‘You have no room to talk! Edd wanted to shout, but he swallowed his reply. An even deeper part of him pushed that it sounded like the opposite of what Tord had been saying earlier.

But that was part of the reason he’d wanted so badly to see Tom and Matt. There was something… off about Tord’s behavior. Ever since he’d turned himself in, the scarred man hadn’t ceased to surprise Edd. And here Edd had thought that Tord was incapable of surprising him after his betrayal. First, he declares their friendship dead, then he hunts him like a dog to the ends of the Earth, then he reveals that wants Edd at his side after all? 

And now what? Tord hadn’t really done much with him. Nothing noteworthy anyways. Hadn’t tortured him, hadn’t revealed that it was all an evil trick to get Edd’s guard down only to cook him in a vat of boiling cola. He’d just… spent time with him. Talking, mostly. Showing him around his grand base. Took him outside a few times. Truth be told, Edd couldn’t remember a lot of it, let alone say he’d enjoyed it. He hadn’t wanted to raise his expectations and who could blame him?

But gradually, Edd managed to wake up and realize two strange things:

1\. He wasn’t dead yet.

2\. He hadn’t seen Tom or Matt at all.

He hadn’t seen them since… the last time they’d tried to capture him. Which hadn’t been that long, sure, but he thought that he would have at least run into them or seen them taking orders from their Leader. 

They arrived at the room that Tord had called their “meeting room.” Lined and reinforced with metal, it wasn’t that much different from most of the other rooms in the base, maybe a bit emptier. Each end held a door, and Edd held his breath in expectation, presuming that Tom and Matt would come through the other side.

He threw another hopeful look at Tord. Despite all the weird behavior, Edd couldn’t keep a glimmer of hope from sparking in his mind. It took some convincing, but Tord did appear to be trying to hold true to his word. Was he just trying to spare Edd’s feelings before? Had he really meant what he said about giving him anything? 

Was… Tord still his friend after all?

Edd’s breath hitched when the other door slid open and his former friends stepped in. They all stared each other down for a few moments. Edd watched them put the pieces together, watched them realize that it was him. In a Red Army uniform. It was almost funny, and he actually let his mouth break out in a smile. With a bit of hesitation, the two started walking toward him.

The tension in him broken, he started to make his own way to the center of the room, vaguely aware that Tord kept close pace with him.

It didn’t occur to him to question why.

When they’d almost reaching speaking distance a loud noise came from above and below the center of the room. At the same time Edd was pulled backwards. Hard. Something had dropped down between them. Edd broke free, ditching the coat, leaving it in Tord’s hand, but by then it was too late. He crashed against the transparent barrier that had crashed down between him and his once-companions. 

On the other side, something else had begun to come over them. It started when each of them began to clutch at his face. Matt called out in pain while Tom’s teeth were being ground into dust. As the pain seemed to only get worse for them, Edd realized something important about the predicament.

Each man was clawing at the exact places where Tord had made his… adjustments.

Edd turned to face a grinning Tord, who held a remote he must have pulled from his coat.

“What are you doing to them?”

“Just a side-effect to the surgery I gave them a while back. I made a few improvements, but I added a little something extra in case they ever stepped out of line.” He tapped his jaw, then his temple, "Just at the points where metal and flesh meet, you see."

“Stop it! Let them go!”

“But Edd! I thought you wanted to see them?”

He could hear their yelling, but it was muffled and didn’t come directly from where they were. Edd looked up to see a speaker high up on a nearby wall. His blood ran colder. 

Tord wanted him to hear them suffer.

“Stop!” Edd yelled, “Please stop! I did what you wanted. We all did.”

“Tell me, Edd. What would you agree to for their safety?” Edd stared back, barely able to breathe.

“What?”

Tord stretched out his false arm, “Let’s make a deal. As equals this time. I can guarantee their safety. What would you give for that?”

He kept staring, speechless. He’d already given up what he had left of his life. Did he even have anything left to give?

“I’m sorry, Edd.” Edd’s head snapped back up to the speaker. Despite the glitching quality of the audio, Edd could tell exactly who it was. He met the eyes of the now-collapsed strawberry-blonde that lay a few feet away.

“I’m sorry.” This time the words matched the movement of Matt’s metallic jaw, though it must have been agony since it was where his pain stemmed from.

“Me too.” Edd’s eyes darted to Tom. Even now, it was hard to gauge the emotion on his face, but the pain in his voice couldn’t have been clearer, “I’m sorry Edd.”

Everything snapped into perspective then.

He tore his eyes away from his friends to return Tord’s cold gaze. 

“Anything.”

He extended his hand to meet Tord’s.

“Glad to hear it.” Rather than shaking his hand, Tord snatched Edd’s wrist with his robotic hand and yanked him even harder than before. Edd lost his footing as he was practically thrown behind the dictator into the grip of the waiting soldiers that Edd hadn't even noticed had arrived. They caught him in sync, each with a death-hold on one of his arms.

“Pau, Pat. Take him back to his quarters. We’ll talk more about this soon, Edd.” As the two men dragged him away, Edd struggled, trying to stall.

“Waitwaitwaitstop!” 

When that failed, he strained his neck to see what he could of his friends. He couldn’t turn his head far enough to see for sure, but he thought he glimpsed Matt still twitching on the floor and he could still hear yells of pain. His last hope was the slim chance that they could hear him as well.

“Tom! Matt! I’m sorry t—“

The door slammed shut behind them, cutting him off from Tom and Matt once and for all.

…

With Edd now out of the room, Tord pressed the button that turned off the electrodes, though he allowed his finger to linger for a moment longer. Restraining himself, he pressed a button on a different remote to retract the glass wall. Then, he waited for the two men to recover.

The whole situation shouldn’t have even happened. It was unbelievable. Tord had gained everything. Money. Fame. Power. An army. The world. Tom and Matt. 

So why? 

Did Edd? 

Still? 

Belong? 

To them?

After rising to his feet, Matt looked at Tord uncertainly while helping Tom, “Edd’s one of us now?”

“Yes, he turned himself in earlier today.” Tord pretended to lament, “Such a waste of everyone’s time. If I had known he was going to do that, I wouldn’t have sent you out so often to find him these last few days.” Neither of them responded. Unlike Edd, the two lesser friends knew not to question Tord. They wouldn’t even question the torture he’d just put them through.

He wondered what Edd would think of them right now in this moment. Not the cold, ruthless men that had hunted him down for ages, nor the oh-so cherished brothers he’d grown up with, but pathetic, cowering worms that backed down even when it was obvious they’d been used.

He saw the fear in Matt’s eyes and Tom’s defensive stance. They were probably terrified that he was going to punish them even more for their little heart-to-heart with Edd.

However, despite his rage, he was in a generous mood. Besides, the poor things had likely thought they were going to die since he’d never used the electrodes on them before. When he’d given them the robotic implants to patch them up, he somehow had failed to mention that little detail. Actually, they were pretty lucky they hadn’t already found out the hard way with all the times they’d disappointed him.

“Anyways, that will be all for now, gentlemen. You may retire to your quarters.” They exchanged a look and made their way to the other door. On his way out, Tom looked over his shoulder at Tord with a snarl that exposed the fury that he had gotten so good at hiding.

In response, Tord let himself smirk back at him for just a second. Just long enough for him to get the true message of the encounter:

'Edd belongs to me now. Just like you.'

It wouldn't be a bluff for much longer.

...

“What. Was. That?” Edd snapped the second Tord showed his face in his doorway  
.  
“I could ask you the same thing,” Tord retorted as he stormed in, “I offered you everything. The chance to do anything and have everything and reshape your once-pathetic life. And what do you do? You asked for the two people who nearly destroyed everything.”

Edd blinked. Hadn’t he been the one to nearly ruin everything for Tord? “I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t, Edd.” Tord said, sounding exhausted, “You never have. You probably never will.”

“You said I could ask for anything.”

“Why yes, old friend,” Tord grinned with venom, "I did say that. And I truly meant it. However. I also can have whatever I want. Remember? That was the deal. You and me. Just us. That means when you want to see them, I want to see them hurt. And so we’ll both get what we want.”

Edd’s gaze fell back to the decimated town outside as Red Leader’s words sank in, only to be brought back to reality through the iron-grip on his shoulder.

“Now. What do you want more than anything?”

“I want Tom and Matt to be safe.”

“Done and done.” Tord’s tone switched back to the cheery persona Edd had grown accustomed to. “In return, I want you to refrain from asking to see them,” his smile dropped at the end. He studied Edd for a response. Edd nodded.

Tord sighed, but appeared to be satisfied. He turned back toward the door. “I’ve been lenient long enough, Edd. Tomorrow, you will take your place as my second-in-command. I would find smarter ways to use the power I’ve given you, if I were you.”

As Tord left, Edd bowed his head, but inside of him was a fire that he’d thought was long gone.

Tord had won just like all their other battles, but the looks he’d exchanged with his old best friends had reignited the war. They may have joined Red Leader and betrayed him of their own free will, but it didn’t matter. They were prisoners like he was now, not soldiers. 

It was a long shot, and he didn’t know how he would do it, but he had something to fight for again.

His best friends.

**Author's Note:**

> I had so much fun with this, you guys!
> 
> You know, I think this could be summed up by the "All Eyes on Me" meme. XD 
> 
> Feel free to let me know what you thought in the comments.
> 
> As always, thank you so much for reading!


End file.
